der the system of
monarchical governments, the peasants and laborers of Europe have been
kept in a state of besotted ignorance, developing chiefly in the animal
propensities, and not fitting themselves for the higher enjoyments of the
spirit life.

Finding that the spirit world was likely to be overrun by this class of
ignorant and superstitions people, its wise rulers have instigated the
legislators of the United States to provide means for the education and
development of these lower classes of society.

It is only by assimilating with those of a higher intellectual
development that the ignorant become enlightened, and America, in
throwing down all barriers to political and social advancement, has been
the chief instrument of lifting the great mass of humanity to a position
of power in the spirit world; still there are crowds of beings, ignorant
and superstitious, who enter the spirit world, and their intellects can
only be unfolded by the labor and guidance of some master mind.

I was surprised to find that physical labor here, as on earth, was one of
the chief means employed to assist in mental growth; and I found swarms
of English, Irish, and German people happily at work, cultivating the
land and erecting houses for themselves and others, and assisting in the
great machinery of life, which here, as in the other world, revolves its
constant round.

I had nearly forgotten to mention that since leaving your world I
returned on one occasion to attend a _seance_, as it is termed, for
physical manifestations, and had the pleasure of seeing how our chemists
combine from the elements the semblance of the human form. I had been
interested when on earth in an experiment recently made by scientific
men, whereby, through a peculiar combination of metals, a flame is caused
to assume the shapes of flowers, leaves, fishes, and reptiles, apparently
developed from the air, and I discovered an intelligent solution of the
remarkable experiment in the manifestations I witnessed at this _seance_.

It appears that every particle in nature throws off a gaseous emanation,
partaking of its particular shape. These gaseous particles are not
discernible with the material eye, excepting when by chance they
coalesce, and then a phosphorescent light ensues, which renders them
apparent.

A similar effect to this is seen in electricity, which lies latent and
viewless till by a sudden coalescing of its parts it manifests itself in
zigzag li